When Crono and Marle arrived at Truce inn, Lucca wasn't there.
A doctor and two others had just moved her.
They were on their way to Guardia Castel.
Marle and Crono watched the mess in the room.
Almost every chair was broken, there was a big hole in the roof, and a corner in the room was black of ash.
Had Lucca been sitting there?
"This looks like Lucca's place on her last birthday." Crono said,
but no one was up for some jokes now.
The owner was hysteric. "Why? Why did he do this to me?"
"Who?" Marle asked.
The owner shook his head.
"I don't know his name. He just walked into this place, like he owned it, and then... Terrible!"
Crono tried to lift one of chair from the floor, but it broke in 6 parts when he touched it.
"What did he look like?" Marle asked while she was checking the burned corner.
"Hard to tell. He had a big black cape with a dragon painting on it. That's all I saw."
Crono looked at Marle, but he didn't say anything.
Marle nodded and walked away to the door.
"Well, I don't think we can do much more for the moment. And don't worry about the house.
I'll make sure that someone repair it."
"Oh! Thank you, Princess Nadia. That was very kind of you."
Crono made his way to the door. "Come on Marle, let's catch Lucca."
Marle nodded and they both walked out of the door.
There was a lot of people outside the house and once Marle and Crono came out, then they started to shout thing like:
"Do you know who did this?", "What will you do about it?" and "Is Lucca alright?".
Marle and Crono made their way through the crowd,
and when they were twenty meters away from the building, Marle asked:
"You know him?"
Crono shook his head.
"Not really. I just met him in the forest, but I didn't think he was planing to do something like this."
They made their way through Truce, and once they were out of the town, Marle continued the discussion.
"I wonder who he is? And why he did it."
"Who knows. Perhapps only himself. C'mon! Let's hurry to Lucca!"
They both ran to the forest and almost crossed it before they caught Lucca, the doctor and two others. They had put Lucca on a cart, and she was laying unconscious on it.
"How is she?" Marle asked and put her hand on Lucca's forehead.
"Bad." The doctor said. "She is haveing hard cramps in her muscles. All of them she says."
"Terrible..." Marle said. "What caused it?"
The doctor just shook his head.
Suddenly, the two men who was pulling the cart stopped.
"Four Hetakes!" one of them shouted. "I'll try to scare them of."
But Crono stopped him. "Let me handle it. You see... These guys and me are old friends."
Crono placed himself right in front of them and pointed his hand straight up.
The Hetakes ran quickly away. Crono had crossed this forest hundreds of times,
and the Hetakes had learned to run away when he showed up.
"You may proceed." Crono said and moved out of the way for the cart.
 
 

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Lucca screamed.
Not even Crono had heared her scream like this before.
"Calm down! Where does it hurt?" Crono said.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! EVERYWHERE!!!!! EVERYWHERE!!!!!"
Marle gave her another heal poison, but it didn't help.
The doctor came into the room again, with his bag full of stuff.
He filled a cup with some liquid and tried to give it to Lucca, but Marle stopped him.
"Let me try." she said.
She put her hand together, and concentrated.
In her mind, she focused on Lucca.
Just Lucca, and to heal her.
Then she put one hand on Lucca's head, and the other one on her hand.
She summond her Magic powers and let them flow through her to Lucca.
To heal Lucca was now the only thing she had in mind.
Marle's hands started to glow, and thousands of particles flied around in the room.
They all gathered around Lucca and made her glow with a gold shimmer.
The glowing slowly faded out.
But Lucca's pain didn't.
"My turn." the doctor said and gave Lucca some liquid.
Slowly she fell asleep.
"Is she better now?" Marle asked the doctor, but he just shook his head.
Crono walked to the stair leading up to the stairroom.
"I'll go and find him."
Marle was just about to say something, but she didn't find any words.
"..."
Crono walked up.
"Be careful..." Marle whispeared.
 

"What do you need your sword for?" Crono's mom asked when Crono picked down his sword.
"Just in case..."
She shook her head. "Why do you have to arm yourself when you are just going to talk to a man."
Crono walked up to his room, and his mom followed.
"I'm always armed. My mind is a weapon, remeber?"
Crono's mom didn't know what to say.
"Oh yes, that hockus pockus..."
Crono took an elixir and a heal and then he walked down and opened the door.
"Don't worry! I'm not gonna save the world!"
He walked out. "Just a friend."

When the night came, Crono had seached everywhere. The was just one place left.
Why there?
Most people were in their houses now.
When Crono came to Leene square, there were not a soul there.
Crono crossed it and walked into the north forest.
There were quite quiet in forest right now.
A light fog could be seen.
He could hear just a few birds, but he couldn't see any animals.
After he had walked a bit, the night fell on.
It was a wonderful night. Not a cloud on the starry sky.
Crono walked on the path until it turned left.
Then he instead continued straight forward.
After a while, he could hear the ocean.
His secret hideout was ahead.
It was as he thought, the black cape man stood there.
"When you been here once, you'll never forget this place."
The man didn't react.
"Right or wrong?" Crono continued when he walked forward.
"You are right." The man said.
Crono looked a the view. This was probably one of the best moments to be here.
"If only Marle was here..." Crono thought, but changed his mind when he thought about the man.
"What do you think of Truce so far?" Crono said, trying to be nice and avoid a fight.
Crono actualy feared this guy.
"It's a nice city."
Crono smiled. "It's not that big... I would call it a town."
"Town?" The man said supriced. "Is that the word?"
"Yes." Crono said. "Bigger than a village, but smaller than a city. A town."
The man nodded. "Oh yes, your right."
Crono tried to get their chat to Lucca.
"And the people? You like them?" he tried.
"Yes." The man said. "If it weren't because of me, the people would be happy."
Crono tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to mind.
"This day..." The man started. "I hurt an innocent girl. How could I do it?"
Crono looked supriced at him. This man was so strange.
"Yes. She's haveing some difficulties with recovering. Do you know what to do?"
The man looked at Crono for the first time of their chat.
"Dip her in salt water. It will help. Otherwise, it will be over in a few years."
"A FEW YEARS?!?" Crono thought. This guy ment it. There was 0% sarcasm in his words.
"Thanks!" Crono said and ran back into the forest.
The man gaze after Crono, and when Crono disapeared, he still looked into the forest.
"Would he understand?" he thought.
 
 

Crono came running down the staires. Marle heared him even when he entered the castel.
"How is she?" Crono asked when he jumped down the final stair.
"As usual."
Crono walked to the bed where Lucca layed and put his hand on her forehead.
"You found him?" Marle said.
Crono nodded.
"All we have to do is bath her in salt water."
"Salt water?" Marle repeted.
Suddenly the doctor woke up.
"Salt water? Are you sure? I mean..."
"Do you have any better suggestion?" Marle interupted him.
The doctor became quiet.
"I'll go and dipp her in the northan ocean." Marle said and rose up.
Crono grabbed her arm. "Tomorrow. You have guarded her the entire day."
"Will she be okay?" Marle said and looked at Lucca.
"Yeah." Crono said.
The doctor looked up again.
"Are you planing to do something?"
Marle look supriced at him.
"Yeah. It's called 'to sleep'. Have you ever heard of it?"
She looked at Crono.
"Crono, be a nice gentleman and escort the doctor home. We won't needing him anymore tonight."
Crono smiled.
"Sure. Come on, let's go doc."
 

Crono walked to Truce village with the doctor and then home.
He put his sword back on the wall, and walked upstairs.
He looked out of his window. He could see the north forest from here. Somewhere out there...
"Stay away from Marle and Lucca..." Crono said.
 

Slowly Marle put Lucca's body in the cold water.
Her scream of pain became more a scream of chock.
"IIIIIIAAAAHHHH.... This must be absolute zero!" Lucca yelled, but smiling.
"How do you feel?" Marle asked nervous.
"Better than ever!" Lucca shouted. "BETTER!!! YES!!!"
"Poew... I though it would never end."
Marle and Lucca walked slowly back to the shore.
"Now, I put your clothes... eh... but I... Hmm... Just a minute, okay? CRONO!!!" Marle shouted.
But she didn't get any answer.
"There they are." Lucca said and pointed at rock. And there they were.
"They must have blown away." Marle said.
Lucca dressed fast.
"You know who this guy is yet?" Lucca said as she let a comb go through her hair.
"No. But Crono have met him twise. That's all I know.
Apparently, he told us how to cure you."
"Really?" Lucca said. "He didn't look that nice to me."
Marle kept staring at the beach. "You're not going after him, right?"
Lucca didn't answer.
"Look. I don't know what he did to you, but we don't want it to happen again."
Not even this time, Lucca answered.
She walked away.
"Lucca!" Marle shouted after her.
Lucca turned around.
"He can't be stronger than Lavos. Besides, I'm just gonna talk to him."
Marle followed her.
"Then I'm going with you."
 
.

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